.65 M6 



\v 



The German Element 
in Two Great Crises 
of American History 



1776—1861 



By REV. J. F. MEYER, 

Minister of the Independent Protestant Church, 
Columbus, Ohio. 



Proceeds from the sale of this pamphlet 
will be devoted to the relief of widows and 
orphans of the fallen soldiers of the German 
and Austrian armies. 



PRICE, 10 CENTS. 



.qs 



MOTTO. 

Nobody can discern today how much those of English and 
how much these of German race have contributed to Ameri- 
can life and to the progress of the land. Their work has be- 
come a unit, and it would be a happy development for the 
national soul, indeed, if at last their ideals would form a unit, 
too. The outer frame-work of the national life has been com- 
pleted, but the spirit of the country would only gain if the 
traditional Anglo-Saxon culture also absorbed more and more 
the German faith in discipline of the will and in the over- 
personal value of the ideal goods. — Miinsterberg. 



Copyright, 1915, by J. F. Meyer 



PREFACE 



The author of this little pamphlet does not claim to have 
made any new contribution to the subject herein treated. He 
is not a professional historian and has done very little in the 
way of original research. He has depended very largely upon 
the work of those who are historians by calling especially 
upon Dr. Bernhardt Faust, author of a great work on "The 
German Element in America," to whom he hereby wishes to 
acknowledge his great indebtedness. Indeed, the author 
frankly acknowledges that he has not only borrowed much of 
his matter from Dr. Faust, but in some cases has even given 
his "ipsissima verba." 

But since it is part of the author's aim in publishing this 
pamphlet, to popularize some of the historical knowledge to 
be gained by a perusal of Faust's great work, and to call atten- 
tion to it, these occasional plagiarisms will surely be par- 
doned. 

But the discerning reader will also find much new mate- 
rial not found in Faust, in these two little essays. Some of this 
may be found in the ordinary histories of the periods treated 
hy Bancroft, Fiske and Ehocles. Some of it the author culled 
from the pages of German periodicals and puhlications. Just 
a very little of it may also be considered new or original mate- 
rial due to original research by the author. 

The author has also made use of two historical novels 
which throw light on the periods treated. The first is "In 
the Valley," by Harold Frederic, which deals with the Revo- 
lution, and the other is Winston Churchill's "Crisis," which 
deals with the Civil War. In the afterword to the latter, 
Churchill says: "Nor can the German element in St. Louis be 
ignored. The part played by this people in the Civil War is a 
matter of history." 

For the history of the part played hy the Germans in St. 
Louis during the Civil War, the author also feels specially 
indebted to Snead's "The Fight for Missouri." 

The author does not expect to reap either fame or money 
by the publication of this pamphlet, His chief reward will 
probably be criticism. He did not rush into print inadvisedly, 
but only from a sense of duty and in accordance with the de- 
sire of many friends. 

There are times when many Americans are inclined to 

1 



think and speak as if this were an Anglo-Saxon nation, and 
to forget the services rendered and the contribution made to 
our national life, by people of other racial stocks. The present 
is such a time. The pamphlet is therefore not without the qual- 
ity of timeliness. 

The essay on "The German Element in America During 
the Revolutionary War," was compiled from Faust and other 
sources, at the request of friends, whose interest in the sub- 
ject had been aroused and who desired information. It was 
first read before the Sarah Hull Chapter, D. A. R., in Newton, 
Mass., in 1911, in the presence of the regents of most of the 
chapters of that order in Massachusetts. It was afterwards 
repeated before the Paul Revere Chapter, D. A. R., in Boston, 
the Cambridge (Mass.) Ministers' Association, the Brookline 
Historical Society, and other patriotic, historical and religious 
organizations in Massachusetts and Connecticut. None of its 
statements were questioned at that time. The date of the 
essay's composition shows that it is purely historical and 
therefore truly neutral in spirit. 



0CI.A41O243 



AUG 26 1916 



The German Element in America Dur- 
ing the Revolutionary War 



AT the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the total popu- 
lation of the Thirteen Colonies, according to an estimate 
made by the Continental Congress, was 2,243,000 people. This 
estimate, however, is generally considered too large. Bancroft 
estimates the total white population of the Colonies in 1775 at 
2,100,000. 

According to a very conservative estimate, the number of 
Germans in America at this time was about 225,000, more than 
one-tenth of the entire population. Of his number fully 110,000 
lived in Pennsylvania, where the Germans numbered more than 
one-third of the population. (See Note, page 18.) 

The Germans in America, almost to a man, were patriots 
and champions of independence. This fact undoubtedly had 
a decided influence upon the outcome of the struggle. The 
social conditions of the Germans in the Colonies forced them 
as a necessary consequence, into the Democratic party, or the 
party of independence. They were not members of families 
that had been in favor at court for generations ; they were not 
owners of estates that were gifts of the crown ; they had no 
national sentiments of loyalty binding them to a British prince. 
They were men who had hewn their own farms out of the wild 
forest, had maintained their independence against its savage 
inhabitants, and now claimed as their own the soil on which 
their battles had been won. 

This state of affairs is well brought out in Harold Fred- 
eric's novel, entitled "In the Valley," the scene of which is 
laid in revolutionary times, among the early Dutch and Ger- 
man settlers in the upper Mohawk Valley, when he makes one 
of the German characters in the book say: "We Germans are 
not like the rest. Our fathers and mothers remember their 
sufferings in the old country, kept ragged, and hungry and 
wretched in such a way as my negroes do not dream of, all 
that some scoundrel baron might have gilding on his carriage, 
and that the elector might enjoy himself in his palace. They 
were beaten, hanged, robbed of their daughters, worked to 
death, frozen by the cold in their nakedness, dragged off into 
the armies to be sold to any prince who could pay for their 
blood and broken bones. The French who overran the Palati- 
nate were bad enough; the native rulers were even more to 

3 



be hated. The exiles of our race have not forgotten this; they 
have told it all to us, their children and grandchildren horn 
here in this valley. "We have made a new home for ourselves 
over here, and we owe no one but God anything for it. If they 
try to make here another aristocracy over us, then we will 
die first before we will submit." 

At the beginning of the Revolution, most of the Germans 
were settled on the frontier, their settlements extending from 
the valley of the Mohawk in New York, through Pennsylvania, 
Western Maryland, and the great Valley of- Virginia, to the 
German settlement of Ebenezer in northern Georgia. 

Frontiersmen gained from their mode of life a degree of 
independence which often set them in opposition to the policies 
of the seaboard. 

The conservative Eastern settlements were better satisfied 
with the status quo ; the frontiersmen looked beyond, aspired 
to new conditions, and were ready to make a bold venture. 
The frontier turned the balance toward independence. 

According to John Adams, nearly one-third of the whole 
population of the Colonies at the outbreak of the "Revolutionary 
"War were Tories or Loyalists. The people of New York and 
Pennsylvania were very equally divided between the Tory and 
the Democratic parties, and the influence of the large German 
element in these states, undoubtedly contributed a great deal 
towards carrying them both for independence, just as, at a 
later crisis in the nation's life, it was the German element 
which held the great State of Missouri for the Union. 

Tn Georgia the Loyalists were in the maiority, and for a 
time contemplated separating Georgia from the general move- 
ment of the Colonies towards independence. Here again it 
was the German element which saved the state for the patriot 
cause and a German by the name of John Adam Treutlen was 
the revolutionary governor of Georgia. 

Even after the beginning of the Avar, the Tory or Loyalist 
partv, though always of course in the minority, often devel- 
oped considerable strength. 

Thus in December. 1776. when "Washington was retreating 
across New Jersev before superior British forces under Howe, 
and when even his wonderful resourcefulness barely sufficed 
to save his little army from annihilation, what do we see? 

Although the legislature of New Jersev was doing all it 
could, we read that the second officer of the Monmouth Bat- 
talion refused to take the oath of the state: Charles "Read, its 
colonel, submitted to the enemy; the chief iustiee of the state 
wavered in his lovaltv; and Samuel Tucker, who had been 
president of the constituent convention of New Jersey, chair- 
man of its committee of safety, treasurer, and judge of its 

4 



supreme court, signed the pledge of fidelity of the British. 
From Philadelphia, Joseph Galloway went over to Howe; so 
did Andrew Allen, who had been a member of the Continental 
Congress, and two of his brothers, all confident of being soon 
restored to their former fortunes and political importance. 
Even John Dickinson, for two or three mouths longer refused 
to accept from Delaware an appointment to the United States 
Congress. 

Among such lukewarm supporters of the Revolution, you 
will seldom or never find a German name, and on the' con- 
trary, when Washington won the battle of Trenton, the praeses 
of the German Lutheran churches in Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey announced the glorious tidings to the congregations 
under his charge in the words: "But the Lord of Hosts heard 
the cry of the distressed, and sent an angel for their deliv- 
erance," and thanksgivings were offered in all the German 
churches. 

One of the interesting details concerning the military his- 
.tory of the Revolution is that Washington's bodyguard was 
largely made up of Germans. There had been Tories, or at 
least suspects, in the first bodyguard appointed, and plots 
were revealed by which the person of the commander-in-chief 
was to be seized. On the advice of Washington's private sec- 
retary and adjutant, Reed, who Avas himself of German de- 
scent, a troop was formed consisting entirely of Germans upon 
whose loyalty the general could depend, 'it was called the 
[ndependent Troop of Horse and placed under the command 
ol Aiajor Yon Heer, another German. Von Heer recruited his 
men in the Pennsylvania German counties of Berks and Lan- 
caster. They began to serve in the spring of 1778. and were 
honorably discharged at the end of the war, twelve of them 
who had served longer than any other soldiers in the Conti- 
nental Army, having the honor of escorting the commander-in- 
chief to his home in Mt. Vernon. 

One of the most interesting and romantic figures in the 
Revolutionary War was the German American, Peter Muhlen- 
berg. He was the son of the Rev. Heinrich Melchior Muhlen- 
berg, the founder and patriarch of the Lutheran Church in 
America. His mother was the daughter of Conrad Weiser a 
German frontiersman, famous as an Indian fighter in the Mo- 
hawk valley. Peter was destined by his father for the min- 
istry, and was sent to Halle to be educated. In 1772 he 
aecepted a call to the Lutheran church at Woodstock, in the 
Shenandoah valley. His frank and manly bearing made friends 
within the congregation and without. An intimacy arose be- 
tween Muhlenberg and Patrick Henry, with Avhom he laid dee]) 
plana of sedition, ne also became intimate with Col. George 



Washington, with whom he often shot bucks in the Blue Ridge 
Mountains. 

Peter Muhlenberg was made the chairman of the com- 
mittee of safety and correspondence in Dunmore Co., Va., in 
which Woodstock is located. 

In the state's convention of 1774 at Williamsburg, and in 
the next session at Richmond in March, 1775, he supported 
Patrick Henry eloquently and gave assurance of the support 
of his large constituency of German settlers in the Valley of 
Virginia. 

When Patrick Henry renewed his motion of arming the 
province of Virginia, it was Peter Muhlenberg who seconded 
him. When the war began, Muhlenberg was placed in com- 
mand of the 8th Virginia regiment, This was at the request 
of Patrick Henry and George Washington. Two other Ger- 
man-Americans, Abraham Bowman and Peter Helfenstein, 
served respectively as his lieutenant-colonel and major. 

Quite typical and characteristic of Peter Muhlenberg was 
the romantic way in which he took farewell of his congrega- 
tion. The news that the popular young minister was to 
preach his last sermon brought crowds of hearers from far 
and near, filling not only the church but also the church-yard 
roundabout. It was in January, 1776, when the atmosphere 
was charged and electric with potentialities. At the close of 
his sermon, the minister spoke of the duties which we owe to 
our country, saying, with a fervor born of conviction, that 
"there is a. time for praying and preaching, but also a time 
for battle, and that such a time had now come." As soon as 
he had pronounced the benediction, he threw aside his cler- 
ical robe, and behold, instead of a Lutheran minister in his 
black talar, there stood revealed a colonel of the Continental 
Army in full uniform. As he slowly descended from the pul- 
pit, the whole congregation burst forth into singing that grand 
old German choral: "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott," while 
outside the church the drums were beaten for the mustering 
of soldiers in the cause of freedom. Enthusiasm blazed up, 
carrying men away to a step before which they had long hesi- 
tated and trembled. Three hundred recruits were at once 
taken into the regiment of Muhlenberg, and on the following 
day the numbers were increased to over four hundred. 

The regiment of Muhlenberg was first used in South Caro- 
lina and then brought north. 

On February 21, 1777, Congress raised Col. Muhlenberg 
to the rank of a brigadier general in command of the 1st, 5th, 
9th and 13th Virginia regiments. The brigades of Muhlen- 
berg and of Weedon formed General Greene's division, dis- 
tinguished for bravery and discipline in the battles of Brandy- 
wine and Gcrmantown. 

6 



It was Muhlenberg's brigade which covered the retreat 
of the American Army after the battle of Brandywine and 
prevented its annihilation by Cornwallis. The same brigade 
also divided the right wing of the enemy at the battle of Ger- 
mantown, the errors of that unfortunate battle being made 
in other quarters. 

Miihlenberg's regiment was also at Valley Forge during 
the winter and subsequently sustained its good reputation at 
the battle of Monmouth. 

A quaint and interesting character among Germans of 
revolutionary times was Christopher Ludwig. He was of a 
different type from Muhlenberg, in origin, social position and 
education, but one with him touching motive and enthusiasm. 

Christopher Ludwig was a representative of that sturdy, 
middle-class element among the Germans which has fre- 
quently inspired admiration for its old-fashioned virtue and 
power, though it may sometimes cause amusement by its 
foreign smack. Ludwig lived in Philadelphia, where he ag- 
gressively championed the revolution from the very first. 

When Gov. Mifflin made a motion that a collection be 
taken for the purchase of arms and ammunition and several 
voices were heard in opposition, Ludwig arose, and said in 
badly accented but very plain English: "Mr. President, I 
am of course only a poor ginger-bread baker, but write me 
down for two hundred pounds." Ludwig 's move closed the 
debate and carried the proposition unanimously. 

In May, 1777, Congress appointed Ludwig superintendent 
and director of baking for the entire army, for ever since 1754 
he had practiced in Philadelphia the trade of a baker, which 
he had learned in his native city of Giessen. He was required 
by the Continental authorities to furnish one hundred pounds 
of bread for every one hundred pounds of flour. But he said « 
"No! Christopher Ludwig does not wish to get rich by the 
war. He has enough already. Out of one hundred pounds of 
flour, one gets one hundred and thirty-five pounds of bread 
and so many will I give." The added water, of course, in- 
creases the weight of the flour when it is baked into bread. 

The legislators of that period were ignorant of this simple 
fact of which any housekeeper could have informed them. 
Ludwig 's predecessors, who were grafters of an early date, 
had given themselves the benefit of this ignorance. But the 
Dutch gingerbread baker was too honest and patriotic for that. 

Ludwig 's behavior in this matter compares favorably 
even with that of Gen. Greene, who, while at the head of the 
quartermaster department, did not scruple to enter into a 
most secret partnership with the head of he commissary de- 
partment in order to increase the profits which he derived by 
furnishing supplies to the army. 

7 



One of Ludwig 's notable achievements was the prompt 
execution of Washington's order, immediately after the sur- 
render of Yorktown, to bake bread for the army of Corn- 
wallis. Ludwig baked six thousand pounds of bread in one 
day. 

Dr. Benjamin Rush thought Ludwig worthy of a biog- 
raphy by his own distinguished pen. His "Life of Ludwick" 
was printed in Philadelphia in 1801, and reprinted in 1831. 

The occupation of Philadelphia by the British inflicted 
heavy losses upon Ludwig, and also upon many others, whom 
the British authorities denounced as "notorious rebels," 
among which were numerous Germans. 

Among these German patriots and rebels was Heinrieh 
Miller, then serving as printer of Congress, whose printing 
press and property were confiscated. The British also robbed 
the house of Jacob Schreiner, a German' member of the revo- 
lutionary committee, and destroyed the sugar refinery of 
David Schaffer. They plundered the house of Rev. Michael 
Schlatter, who had shown the greatest sympathy for the cause 
of the patriots from the very beginning and was even thee 
serving as a chaplain in the revolutionary army. They also 
damaged the property of the following German patriots: 
Keppele, Kuhn, Hogner, Zantzinger, Bartsch, Sprogel, Eekert, 
Graff, Gressler and Knorr, most of whom were well-to-do mer- 
chants of Philadelphia. 

The German settlers in the Mohawk Valley rendered a 
most signal and important service to the revolutionary cause, 
by their defeat of the army of St. Leger, which frustrated the 
ambitious plans of General Burgoyne. 

In the middle of June, 1777, General Burgoyne began his 
march from Canada. He wished to cut off New England from 
the rest of the Colonies, by establishing a line from Lake 
Champlain down the Hudson to New York. He was to be 
aided by a British expedition coming up the Hudson from 
New York. At the same time, Col. St. Leger was to come from 
the westward, joining Burgoyne at Albany, after having sub- 
dued the whole of the Mohawk Valley and robbed its German 
farms of their rich harvests, which were to supply Burgoyne 's 
army with food. 

St. Leger left Montreal about the end of July. One-half 
of his force consisted of Hessian Chasseurs, skilled marksmen 
recruited in Germany from the gamekeeper or forester class, 
who were among the hired troops which England employed 
against the Colonists. 

Joseph Brant, the famous Indian chief, was expected to 
meet them at Oswego with an Indian force ; and also Col. 
Clans with a command of Missisagues or Hurons from the far 

8 



West. The rest of the force was composed of British Regulars 
and Canadian Volunteers. 

On the third of August St. Leger arrived in the neighbor- 
hood of the present city of Rome. The German farmers and 
settlers of the Mohawk Valley, however, advanced to meet 
him in battle array under the command of Nicholas Herkimer, 
and inflicted such severe losses upon him in the battle of 
Oriskany that he was compelled to retreat. General Herkimer 
himself died from wounds received in the battle. 

George Washington himself has said: "It was Herkimer 
who first relieved the gloomy scene of the northern campaign. 
The pure-minded hero of the Mohawk Valley served from 
love of country and not for reward. He did not want a Con- 
tinental command nor Continental money." 

In proportion to the number of men engaged the battle 
of Oriskany was the bloodiest battle of the whole war. A 
tremendous thunderstorm raged just before and during the 
battle. This made it impossible for either side to use their old- 
fashioned flintlocks. The two armies came together in a nar- 
row defile, and the battle was fought out with cold steel in a 
terrible hand-to-hand conflict, like some of the great battles 
of antiquity. No prisoners were taken and there were few 
wounded. All who were lost by either side were slain. But 
the German farmers proved themselves a match and more than 
a match, at this dread work, for British Regulars, Canadian 
Volunteers, savage Indians and Hanau Chasseurs. 

Thus Lexington and Concord were not the only fields 
where the embattled farmers stood and resisted British Regu- 
lars, or fired the shot heard round the world, nor were these 
embattled farmers alway of Anglo-Saxon race. 

And the praise of these sturdy heroes found an echo in 
distant Germany, where the veteran poet Klopstock beheld 
in the American War the inspiration of humanity and the 
dawn of an approaching great day. He loved the terrible 
spirit which emboldened the peoples to grow conscious of 
their power. With proud joy he calls to mind that, among 
the citizens of the young republic, there were also many Ger- 
mans who gloriously fulfilled their duty in the war of free- 
dom. "By the rivers of America, light beams forth to the 
nations, and in part from Germans," he sang. 

Nicholas Herkimer, like nearly all of his officers and men, 
was German. The correct and original spelling of his name 
was Ilerckheimer. His little army, consisting of 8,000 men, 
nearly all German, with which Ik 1 defeated St. Leger's force 
of 16,000, was divided into four regiments, respectively com- 
manded by Cols. Ebenezer Cox, Peter Bellinger, Jacob Klock 
and Priedrich Visscher. Three out of the four colonels being 
German. 

9 




hi his novel, entitled "In the Valley," Harold Frederick 
makes his hero write of this battle of Oriskany, at which he 
was one of the combatants, as follows: "To my way of think- 
ing, the} r , i. e. the Germans and Dutch of New York, have ever 
since been unduly modest about this truly remarkable achieve- 
ment. As I wrote long ago, we of New York have chosen to 
make money, and to allow our neighbors to make histories. 
Thus it happens that the great decisive struggle of the whole 
long war for independence — the conflict which in fact made 
America free — is suffered to pass into the records as a mere 
frontier skirmish. Yet, if one will but think, it is as clear as 
daylight that Oriskany was the turning-point of the war. The 
Palatine Germans, who had been originally colonized on the 
upper Mohawk by the English, to serve as a shield against 
savagery for their own Atlantic settlements, reared a barrier 
of their own flesh and bones, there at Oriskany, over which 
St. Leger and Johnson strove in vain to pass. That failure 
settled everything. The essential feature of Burgoyne's plan 
had been that this force, which we so roughly stopped and 
turned back at the forest defile, should victoriously sweep 
down our valley, raising the Tory gentry as they progressed 
and join him at Albany. If that had been done, he would have 
held the whole Hudson, separating the rest of the Colonies 
from New England, and having it in his power to subdue and 
punish, first the Yankees, and then the others at his leisure. 

' ' Oriskany prevented this ! Coming as it did, at the 
darkest hour of Washington's trials and the Colonies' despond- 
ency, it altered the face of things as gloriously as does the 
southern sun rising swiftly upon the heels of night. Bur- 
goyne's expected allies never reached him; he was compelled 
in consequence to surrender — and from that day there was no 
doubt who would in the long run triumph. 

"Therefore, I say, all honor and glory, to the rude, un- 
lettered, great-souled yeomen of the Mohawk Valley, who 
braved death in the wild-wood gulch at Oriskany that Con- 
gress and the free Colonies might live." 

Most people have heard the legend of Moll Pitcher, but 
few are aware that Moll was a young woman of Pennsylvania- 
German extraction, whose real name was Maria Ludwig. 

She was an interesting individual, reminding one of the 
.M;iiketenderin in Schiller's Wallenstein's Lager. About the 
time of the beginning of the war she married William Hess, a 
German like herself. Her husband became a gunner in an 
artillery company, and Molly returned to service. She got 
news that her husband had been severely wounded, where- 
upon she started out immediately to find him. She nursed him 
when found, and after that, for seven years, she accompanied 

10 



him from battlefield to battlefield. She was utterly fearless, 
brought water aud food to the soldiers, and helped carry away 
the wouuded aud care for them. 

"Here comes Molly with her pitcher" was a refreshing 
sound iu the heat of battle, that made her known throughout 
the army as Moll Pitcher. 

When her husband was wounded, at the battle of Mon- 
mouth, and no assistance seemed available for serving the can- 
non, she herself set about putting the piece in order and load- 
ing it, while those about her were in doubt whether to stand 
or to retreat. It was a trying moment, but the company held 
out until sustained by reinforcements. 

Washington himself witnessed the act, praised the woman, 
and in reward raised her husband to the rank of sergeant. 
This may seem a strange way to reward the woman — by pro- 
moting her husband — but probably Willie Hess is not the only 
man who has owed his promotion and success to his wife. 

After the war, Molly and her husband settled at Carlisle, 
having served throughout the war. Congress gave her the 
rank of a brevet captain, and allowed her an annual pension 
of forty dollars, which she received until her death. Some 
people say Moll Pitcher is a myth, but I don't believe that Con- 
gress would pension a myth. 

The struggle for liberty in America attracted many foreign 
volunteers, among whom were many Germans. Of all the dis- 
tinguished foreigners who aided the American cause, none did 
more real service than the German Baron Von Steuben, the 
drillmaster of the American forces. 

In the words of Alexander Hamilton: "Steuben bene- 
fitted the country of his adoption by introducing into the army 
a regular formation and exact discipline, and by establishing 
a spirit of order and economy in the interior administration 
of the regiments. 

At the time when Steuben took hold the American Army 
was at its very lowest ebb, not only through lack of supplies 
and equipment, but also through the absence of discipline and 
military spirit. Through desertion and disease the original 
force of seventeen thousand had dwindled down to a little 
more than five thousand men who could be called out for duty. 
Even these were poorly armed and clothed in rags. Yet there 
were capabilities in these men which the trained eye of Steu- 
ben recognized. 

After the intriguing and incapable Conway had been re- 
moved from the inspector-generalship, Steuben received a free 
hand in drilling ami schooling the army. 

Events soon proved the excellence and thoroughness of 
his work in the spring campaign of 1778, when Washington 

11 



could get his whole army under arms and ready to march in 
fifteen minutes, and when Lafayette, seeing himself outnum- 
bered and cut off from the main body of the army, was able 
to save his men by an orderly retreat, owing to the training 
they had received under Steuben. 

At the battle of Monmouth, it was the sound of Steuben's 
familiar voice which rallied the broken columns of the traitor- 
ous Lee, and made them wheel into line under a heavy fire as 
calmly and as precisely as if the battlefield had been a parade 
ground. 

The economies of the service resulting from Steuben's 
work were enormous. Instead of having to count upon an 
annual loss of from five to eight thousand muskets, the war 
office could enter upon its records that in one year of Steuben's 
inspectorship only three muskets were missing and even these 
were accounted for. 

At Yorktown, Steuben was the only American officer who 
had ever been present at a siege and his services were of great 
value. He was in command of a division and fortune willed 
that his division should be in the trenches when the first over- 
tures for surrender were made. He had the privilege there- 
fore, so highly prized by all superior officers, of being in com- 
mand when the enemy's flag was lowered. No one was more 
deserving of the distinction than Steuben, the schoolmaster of 
the American Army, and no one in the military service of the 
Colonies, after Washington and Greene, deserves to rank so 
high as Steuben. 

One of the fighting generals of German nationality in 
the revolutionary forces was John Kalb. He is frequently, 
though erroneously, described as the Baron de Kalb, the son 
of a Dutch nobleman. The truth is that he was not a baron, 
lie was not Dutch and his name was not De Kalb, but plain, 
honest German John Kalb, born in Huttendorf in 1721 of poor 
Pranconian peasants. 

By his own native ability and energy he was able to rise 
in life. Two years before the Revolution lie had been employed 
by the government of France to inspect the condition of the 
American Colonies. After his return he married the daughter 
of a Dutch millionaire — there were no daughters of American 
millionaires for foreigners to marry in these days. He occu- 
pied an assured position of influence and comfort in Europe 
and was happy in his wife and children, nevertheless he offered 
his services and finally gave his life for the cause of freedom 
in America. 

lie came to America in 1777 with Lafayette, was appointed 
a major-general, and was considered the most experienced, 
calculating and cautious of all the foreign officers in the Ameri- 
can service. 

12 



n 1,mj Kab was despatched to South Carolina in com- 
mand oi the Delaware and Maryland troops. II, lost his life 
in the battle oi Camden, m which the American forces were 
^ etea * ed 5 owing to the incompetency ami incapacity of Gen- 
«-.;al bates, who once tried by intrigue to supplant George 
W ashington as the head of the army 

follow^'Aft d T' 1Pt T P °n^ al V S part J1J this battl * * ^ 

wt./ °- 1VSt "V ;,t, ' s s arm y ll; " 1 ,, "" 11 dispersed 

and routed, the division which Kail, commanded continued 

ng m action and never did men show greater courage than 

these men oi Maryland and Delaware " 

The horse of Kalb had been killed under him and he had 
been badly wounded, yet he continued to fight on foot At 
last, u, the hop,. f victory he led a charge, drove back the 
division under Rawdon, took fifty prisoners and won Id not 
believe but that he was about to gain the day. when CornwaUis 
poured against hnn a fresh party of dragoons and infantry 
Even then he did not yield until disabled by many wounds 
I he vudory eost the British about five hundred of their best 

at 1 ''" F T Z V ^f l Tl r° tG Mari0n ' " is ^* l t0 » de 
teat. Except one hundred Continental soldiers whom a Col 

<.ist conducted through almost impassible swamps, through 

which the British cavalry could not follow, every American 

corps was dispersed. Kail, lingered lor three days and died 

Al,,,i he i C0l '- GLS V V f ei T ed t0 Was also a German, and the 
Maryland regiment which formed the heart of Kalb's division 

wltlfM^ 7 aCt i° n k WaS com P° sed of German settlers from 
Western Maryland: the same stock which later gave to the 
nation Winfield Scott Schley. g ° e 

General George Weedon was another German officer in the 
Revolutionary Army. His real name was Gerhard von der 
Wieden and he was born in Hanover in Germany. He had 
already served in the French and Indian war as lieutenant 
m the Royal American Regiment, which was composed entirely 
of Pennsylvania Germans. J 

F™Ztl\ the F T Ch an ? Ilulian War was over he settled at 
lede^ksburg Va., so largely populated by Germans, and 
when the Revolution broke out, he became lieutenant-colonel 
of the 3rd Va Militia, colonel of the 1st Va. Continental, and 
finally ml,,, brigadier-general, taking a leading part in the 
battles of Brandywme and Germantown. He left the service 
Oi a time then in 1780 re-entered it under Muhlenberg and 
commanded the Virginia militia before Gloucester Point at the 
siege of Yorktown. 

T^ Al l°t her ^ ! ;,,, "' a " 0fficer was Heinrich Emmanuel 
Lutterloh, major of the guard of the Duke of Brunswick. Tmt- 
terloii s work was especially appreciated by Washington who 



in 1780 made hhn quartermaster-general of the army, in which 
capacity Lutterloh served to the end of the war. 

It is rather significant that three such responsible positions 
in the .Revolutionary Army, as that of inspector-general, quar- 
termaster-general, and superintendent of bakers, should all 
have been filled by Germans: for these three positions were 
held respectively by Steuben, Lutterloh and Ludwig, all Ger- 
mans. 

Priedrich Heinrich von Weissenfels was an officer in the 
British Army in New York, but as soon as the Revolution broke 
out he offered his services to Washington and served with 
distinction throughout the year. 

John Paul Schott was another. He was a young man of 
fine culture, who came to America intending to enter the Eng- 
lish service. But being deeply impressed by the spirit and 
serious purpose of the patriots he changed his mind. He made 
the acquaintance of 'Washington under most romantic circum- 
stances, and entered the Continental service. He served his 
chosen cause with great devotion and proved a most valuable 
officer. 

At a time when Washington had great difficulty in retain- 
ing any soldiers whatever about him, most of them being short 
term men whose period of service was over, and when the 
English forces were constantly being increased by mercenaries 
from the continent, Washington sent Schott to the German 
districts of Pennsylvania, where the latter recruited an inde- 
pendent German troop of dragoons. This troop was officered 
entirely by Germans and even the military commands were 
given by Germans. 

The Order of the Cincinnati, which was formed by officers 
engaged upon the patriot side during the Revolution, had a 
large number of Germans among its membership. For the state 
of New York alone, the roll of the Cincinnati includes the 
names of fifteen officers of the highest rank. 

In "Der Deutsche Pioneer," Kapp gives a list of the Ger- 
man officers in the first thirteen Pennsylvania regiments. Hun- 
dreds of names of German officers and subalterns are there 
given. 

The Germans in the South also rendered distinguished 
service to the revolutionary cause. 

When Lafayette and De Kalb first lauded in Charleston, 
S. C, they took up their quarters with Major Hiiger, a distin- 
guished German citizen of that place. 

The German citizens of Charleston also organized the Ger- 
man Fusileers, who were commanded by Lieutenant Michael 
Kalteisen, and who saw distinguished service at the storming 
of the fortress of Savannah in 1779, by Col. Laurens. In spite 

14 



of the spelling of his name, it has been claimed on good au- 
thority that Col. Laurens was also of German descent, the 
original form of his name being probably Lorenz. 

At the battle of King's Mountain or Cowpens, Oct. 29, 
1781, which did so much towards reviving the hopes of the 
patriots in the South, Col. Hambright, of German descent, and 
in all probability representing a southern branch of the Penn- 
sylvania family of the same name, rendered distinguished ser- 
vice. 

Many of the sharpshooters who served under General Da- 
niel Morgan were Germans gathered from the Valley of the 
Virginia and the frontier settlements of the Carolinas. Six of 
these formed the celebrated Dutch Mess. They messed together 
during the entire war and survived all their severe campaigns. 

The first troops to arrive at the siege of Boston to assist 
the New Englanders in their revolt were Germans from Penn- 
sylvania. They arrived there on the 18th day of July, 1775, 
only thirty-two days after Congress had called the citizens to 
arms. The first soldiers to go to New England from the South 
were Germans from Virginia. They marched to Boston, a dis- 
tance of 600 miles, over rough roads in fifty-four days. These 
Pennsylvania and Virginia Germans were better armed than 
the New England citizen soldiers. "When Washington saw 
them march into his camp in Cambridge he sprang from his 
horse to shake their hands, while tears of gratitude moistened 
his eyes. 

It was the bravery of the Pennsylvania Riflemen, a Ger- 
man regiment commanded by John Peter Koechlin, that earned 
for the Battle of Long Island the name of the "Thermopylae 
of the American Revolution." "These men," writes an Ameri- 
can historian, "stood their ground until as many as seventy- 
nine men in one company had been killed and the rest of the 
army had completed its retreat. Long Island was the Ther- 
mopylae of the Revolution, and the Pennsylvania Germans were 
the Spartans." 

Of great financial aid to the revolutionary cause, was 
Arnold Henry Dohrmann, a German merchant located in Lis- 
bon. He served as the patron of American sailors and fre- 
quently supported and befriended American privateersmen 
who were stranded on the Continent. By selling weapons and 
munitions of Avar to American cruisers, which he sometimes 
accomplished on the high seas by means of his own ships, he 
exposed himself to the hostility of the British government, who 
finally succeeded in inducing the court of Lisbon to banish 
Dohrmann from the country. Dohrmann was also instrumental 
in negotiating several loans for the United States from Dutch 

15 



bankers in Amsterdam, at a time when the Colonies were in 
sore need of money and found it hard to obtain credit any- 
where. 

Dohrmann was born in Hamburg. In 1787 he became a 
naturalized citizen of the United States and his great services 
were officially recognized by Congress. 

Some whole regiments among the French auxiliary troops 
under Rochambeau also were composed entirely of German 
soldiers and officered by Germans. The regiment called the 
Royal Allemand de Deux Pouts, for instance, was the Royal 
German regiment of Zweibriicken. The colonel and com- 
mander of the regiment was Prince Christian of Zweibriicken- 
Birkenfeld; the lieutenant-colonel was Prince William von 
Zweibriieken-Birkenf eld ; the major was Freiherr Eberhard von 
Esebeck, and the captain's name was Haake. This regiment 
served in America from 3780 to 1783. 

The name Zweibriicken literally means Two-Bridges, hence 
the French name of the town is Deux-Ponts. It gets its name 
from two beautiful bridges which span the river flowing 
through it. 

It happens that many of the early settlers in Central Ohio, 
and especially in Columbus, where the author of this pamphlet 
now lives, came from this very town of Zweibriicken. I have 
often seen the picture of the town and its two bridges. And 
one bright old German lady, who is my near neighbor, who 
was born in Zweibriicken, and is now over eighty-eight years 
old, seventy-eight of which she has spent in Columbus, dis- 
tinctly remembers having seen the above-mentioned Freiherr 
von Esebeck in his old age in Zweibriicken, and having had 
him pointed out to her as one of the German officers who fought 
in the war in America. 

Some of the other regiments among these French auxiliary 
troops were composed either entirely or partly of German sol- 
diers. Knowing which were the German regiments among the 
French troops, and which were the Germans in the Colonial 
Army, it becomes manifest that the German soldier also ren- 
dered conspicuous service in the final campaign which culmi- 
nated in the siege and capture of Yorktown. The only sortie 
which was made during the siege, namely that of Tarleton at 
Gloucester, was beaten back by the legion of Armand ; about 
1,200 militia under the German-American general, Weedon, and 
the men under the Dnke of Lauzun, altogether between three 
and four thousand men, most of whom must have been Ger- 
mans. The enemy was defeated at all points and Tarleton es- 
caped capture with difficulty. 

When the second parallel of trenches was drawn about the 
city of Yorktown, two redoubts stood in the way. At the cap- 

16 



ture of one of these redoubts, according to a well-founded tra- 
dition, the military commands on both sides of the line were 
given in the German language. The attacking party consisted 
of the German soldiers in the French service, while the defend- 
ers were the Hessians in the English service. It was another 
case of Germane righting against Germans, as unfortunately 
they have done only two often in history, previous to the found- 
ing of the modern German empire by Otto von Bismarck. 

The first man who entered the redoubt was Captain Henry 
Kalb, a cousin of the German-American general, John Kail), 
who fell at the battle of Camden. 

The important service rendered by General von Stenben 
at the siege of Yorktown has already been mentioned. His 
brigade occupied the post of honor in the trenches when the 
crisis came and Cornwallis made his first overtures looking to- 
wards surrender. 

This brigade consisted of three regiments — Wayne's Penn- 
sylvania regiment, Muhlenberg's Virginians and Gist's Mary- 
landers. Two of the three colonels were Germans and most of 
the troops were Germans. 

Thus we see that at the beginning of the Revolution the 
Germans in America were unanimously and enthusiastically in 
favor of independence. Two years before the Declaration of 
Independence was proclaimed the German citizens of Pennsyl- 
vania began to advocate publicly the absolute and uncondi- 
tional separation from England, and as British oppression be- 
came more and more intolerable, the Germans were the very 
first to rise in opposition. As the dissatisfaction grew, even 
the king of England asked to be informed as to two matters: 
First, whether the Germans in America favored an independent 
government; and second, if many of them had been soldiers 
before emigrating. Both questions were answered in the af- 
firmative. 

Wherever possible the Germans threw the whole weight 
of their influence against that of the Tory or Loyalist element, 
so strong in some of the Colonies, and in three instances at 
least, namely New York, Pennsylvania and Georgia, this was 
the deciding factor in determining the allegiance of the Colony 
in question. 

During the progress of the Avar the Germans furnished 
their full quota, and more than their full quota of men and 
officers to the Revolutionary Army. They rendered valuable 
service to the cause in many ways and were ever among the 
most persevering and determined patriots. 

And at the end of the war, the last resistance of the enemy 
was overcome, his last sortie was driven back and the last re- 
doubt was taken by German troops, and the enemy's first ovcr- 

17 



tures of surrender were made to a German general, to General 
von Steuben, the schoolmaster of the American army. 

And according to John Fiske, the great news of the glo- 
rious victory at Yorktown was first announced in Philadelphia 
in this wise: 

Early on a dark morning of the fourth week in October, 
an honest old German slowly pacing the streets of Philadel- 
phia on his nightwatch, began shouting: "Basht dree o'gleek 
und C'ornwallis ist gecaptured. " Light sleepers sprang out of 
bed and threw open their windows. Washington's courier laid 
the dispatches before Congress in the forenoon of the same day, 
and after dinner a service of prayer and thanksgiving was 
held in the old German Lutheran Church of Philadelphia, then 
the largest auditorium in the city. What the program was I 
do not know, but all things considered, they could not have 
done anything more appropriate than to sing that grand old 
German choral: "Nun danket alle Gott." 

"There might never have been a united colonial rebellion, 
nor any United States of America, but for the patriotism of 
the Germans of the Colonies," says one writer. 

From one point of view at least, the triumph of the Ameri- 
can Revolution may be considered as the first great victory of 
the German element over British influence in America. 



NOTE — Creveeoeur, the celebrated traveler, himself a Frenchman, 
has left on record his impression of some of these pre-revolutionary 
Germans in his "Letters of an American Farmer." He says: "The 
honest Germans have been wiser in general, than almost all other Euro- 
peans. They hire themselves out to some of their wealthy landsmen, 
and in that apprenticeship learn everything that is necessary. They 
attentively consider the prosperous industry of others, which imprints 
in their minds a strong desire of possessing the same advantages. This 
forcible idea never quits them, they launch forth, and by dint of so- 
briety, rigid parsimony, and the most persevering industry, they com- 
monly succeed. Their astonishment at their first arrival from Germany 
is very great — it is to them a dream; the contrast must be powerful 
indeed; they observe their countrymen flourishing in every place; they 
travel through whole counties where not a word of English is spoken; 
and in the names and the language of the people, they retrace Ger- 
many. They have been an useful acquisition to this continent, and to 
Pennsylvania in particular; to them it owes a large share of its pros- 
perity; to their mechanical knowledge and patience it owes the finest 
mills in all America, the best teams of horses and many other ad- 
vantages. Their recollection of their former poverty ami slavery never 
leaves them as long as they live. From whence the difference arises 
I do not know, but out of every dozen families of emigrants of each 
country, generally seven Scotch will succeed, nine German, and four 
Irish." 



18 



The German Element in America Dur- 
ing the Civil War 



THE debt of America to the German element for services ren- 
dered during the Civil War is by no means slight. Just as 
in the Revolutionary 'War, the German element in America 
proved to be a very derisive factor, and helped to win the day 
for independence, so in our great Civil War, the German ele- 
ment was no. slight factor in deciding the issue and thus help- 
ing preserve the L'nion. 

This appears in the first place from the great number of 
Germans who enlisted in the Union armies. The limitations of 
space forbid me to give an analysis of the figures here, but the 
statement which has been often made, that over two hundred 
thousand Germans served in the Northern armies, is not at all 
exaggerated. This means counting only those who were born 
in Germany. 

Were we to include among the number of Germans fight- 
ing for the Union, all those who were born in America of Ger- 
man parents, the* number would swell to nearly three times 
that figure, or between five and six hundred thousand men. 

But even this large number would not include the descend- 
ants of the Germans who came to the United States in the 
eighteenth century or before. We must not lose sight of the 
fact that the first German immigration to the United States 
occurred in 1683. 

In proportion to their numbers, as statistics show, American 
citizens of German birth even furnished more than their fair 
share of volunteers. The Germans, proportionately speaking, 
surpassed both the native American as well as the Irish ele- 
ment, which justly enjoys such a high reputation for its mar- 
tial spirit, in the number of volunteers they furnished during 
the Civil War. If this is a test, they were not only every whit 
as patriotic as the nativistic American element, but even 
more so. 

It was the German element which held the great state of 
Missouri for the Union. If it had not been for the staunch 
loyalty and the determined stand taken by the Germans of the 
state, Missouri would probably have joined the ranks of 
secession. 

This alone was a service of incalculable value. Missouri 

19 



was the largest of the border states. It had a population of 
nearly a million. Its population and its resources were greater 
by far than those of any of the Cotton States, who were the 
first to secede. It occupied a strategical position, giving to 
those who held it command and control of long stretches of the 
Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. If this great state had 
joined the Confederacy, who knows what a great influence this 
may have had upon other border states, and who knows whether 
the final outcome of the conflict might not have been other 
than it was. That it did not was due largely to its great Ger- 
man population. 

A large per cent, of the native Americans of the state were 
Southern sympathizers. Some of them were outright Seces- 
sionists. Others took the ground that no state had the right 
to secede, but that if any states did secede, the federal govern- 
ment had no right to restore them to the Union by coercion, 
and if the Washington government did attempt this, then Mis- 
souri would fight side by side with her sister states of the 
South. 

At the preceding presidential election, Lincoln had re- 
ceived in the entire state, barely seventeen thousand of the 
one hundred and seventy-five thousand votes that were cast, 
and these were mostly German votes. 

In "The Crisis," by Winston Churchill, Col. Carvel speaks 
derisively of the Republican party as "The Black Republican 
party, made up of old fools and young anarchists, of Dutch- 
men and nigger-worshippers." 

The state government was in the hands of the Secession- 
ists. The newspapers of the state favored secession. The only 
loyal papers of influence were the Missouri Democrat, and the 
two German papers published in St. Louis, "Der Anzeiger des 
Westens" and "Die Westliebe Post." The editor of one of 
the latter, Bernays by name, was entrusted by the loyal citi- 
zens of the state with a confidential mission to President Lin- 
coln. 

The United States arsenal in St. Louis had been well sup- 
plied with arms and ammunition of every kind, by Buchanan's 
secretary of war, a Southern sympathizer, expecting that the 
Secessionists would take them. 

Such was the state of affairs in Missouri just before the 
war. But the German Turners all over the state organized 
bands of volunteers and military companies. At first these 
were called the "Wide Awakes," but afterwards the "Home 
Guards." One such company was called in German "Die 
Schwarze Jager," which their opponents maliciously rendered 
into English by the word "Blackguards." 

The Secessionists also organized and called themselves the 

20 



Minute Men. The regular state militia was already a1 tin' 
command of Jackson, the secessionist governor. 

At this time the Germans numbered about one-half the 
population of St. Louis. They Jived in South St. Louis, which 
was almost a German city in itself. 

In Winston Churchill's "Crisis," the author makes the 
young German, Carl Richter, say to Stephen Brice: "A for- 
eigner! Call me not a foreigner — we Germans will show 
whether or not we are foreigners, when the lime comes. My 
friend, one-half of this city is German and it is they who will 
save it if danger arises. You must come with me one night to 
South St. Louis that you may know us. Then you will per- 
haps not think of us as foreign swill, but as patriots who love 
our new Vaterland even as you love it. You must come to our 
Turner Halls, where we are drilling against the time when the 
Union shall have need of us." 

In the further course of the story, Kichter's boast was 
justified and his prophecy was fullfilled by the Germans of St. 
Louis. Richter himself died in the battle of Wilson's Creek, 
where the brave Lyon fell. 

But what is true in the story, was also true in history. The 
German Home Guards soon squelched and overawed the Min- 
ute Men. By command of General Lyon, they took possession 
of the U. S. arsenal, garrisoned it and prevented it from falling 
into the hands of the Secessionists. They also captured Camp 
Jackson, a militia and training camp which the Secessionists 
had formed just outside of St. Louis, and made prisoners of 
all the Minute Men who were encamped there. They marched 
on Jefferson City, the capital of the state, drove out the Seces- 
sionist state government, occupied the city, and put a sign 
over the door of the state capitol, which read: "Hier wird 
Deutsch gesprochen" (German spoken here). A harmless 
joke, which might well be permitted them in view of the in- 
valuable service which they rendered to the Union cause. 

After the garrisoning of the arsenal, five regiments of 
German troops were regularly formed. Four of the five 
colonels commanding these regiments were German. Their 
names were Bornstein, Sigel, Schuttner and Salomon. They 
all played a' conspicuous part in the subsequent fighting by 
which Missouri was held for the Union. 

To show the intense patriotism and determined spirit of 
these Germans of Missouri, I may mention* here, that on the 
sixth day of February, following the election of Lincoln, the 
German Turners of St. Louis passed a series of resolutions to 
the effect: "That they would never depart from their rights 
and duties as citizens of the United States, and that neither 
the legislative convention, nor any other body, not even the 

21 



majority of the people of the state of Missouri, had the right 
to wrest from them their citizens' rights, nor to separate them 
from the Union." 

They even resolved that, if the state of Missouri should 
secede, a provincial government should be erected for the 
county of St. Louis, which should remain faithful to the 
Union, and which should be defended by them with their 
property and their blood. 

The Germans in America not only furnished their full 
quota and more than their full quota of men to the Union 
armies, but also many of the ablest officers who were needed 
to lead that great host. 

Among the officers of higher rank during the Civil War, 
there were no less than eighteen men of German birth, who 
attained to the rank of a general officer, namely eleven briga- 
dier generals and seven major generals. Here is the roll of 
honor : 

General Adolf Engelmaim died the death of a hero, fight- 
ing gloriously for the cause of his adopted country, at Shiloh. 

General Ludwig Blenker protected the rear of the Union 
army in its flight from Bull Run, with his German troops. At 
the beginning of the war he organized a German regiment 
known as the 8th New York, whose colonel he became. 

General Friedrich Hecker, the patriarch of Belleville, 
fought bravely in the East and in the 'West. 

General Carl Eberhard Salomon, of whom we have already 
spoken, helped save Missouri for the Union. He was one of 
a remarkable family of three brothers, all born in Germany. 
One brother, Edward Salomon, was the war governor of Wis- 
consin. Another brother, Friedrich Salomon, organized the 
Ninth Wisconsin German regiment, and for distinguished ser- 
vice in Arkansas and the Southwest, against Generals Kirby 
Smith and Price, was made brigadier general and brevet major 
general. 

General Alexander Schimmelpfennig served with distinc- 
tion at Gettysburg and afterwards was destined to be the 
first Union officer to enter the city of Charleston, S. C, the 
original home of secession, at the head of his troops. 

General Max Weber fell at the battle of Antietam, just 
as he seemed about to pierce the center of the rebel army, by 
conducting a brilliant and successful advance. 

General Heinrich Bohlen, a man of wealth and great abili- 
ty, had seen service in half a dozen wars. He sacrificed his 
life for the unity and future greatness of the United States 
of America, in the fighting along the Rappahannock in Vir- 
ginia. 

General August Moor Avon many laurels in the Shenan- 
doah Valley. 

22 



General Hugo Wangelin fought victoriously at Pea Ridge, 
Atlanta, Ringgold and Lookout Mountain. 

General Adolf von Steinwehr rendered important services 
at Gettysburg and Chattanooga. 

Major General Franz Sigel, the victor of Pea Ridge, an- 
other of the men who helped save Missouri for the Union. 
Major General Julius Stahel, the hero of Shiloh. 
Major General Carl Schurz, statesman and soldier, well 
known to the general reading public by his brilliant remi- 
niscences. 

Major General Peter Joseph Osterhaus helped take Vicks- 
burg, Chattanooga, Atlanta and Savannah. 

Major General August Kautz advanced from the rank 
of a private soldier to that of a major general and was one 
of the most brilliant cavalry leaders in the Union Army. 

Major General Gottfried Weitzel commanded the army 
of the James and was the first Union general to enter the con- 
quered Confederate capital of Richmond. 

General August Willich, the victor of Bowling Green, 
helped save Kentucky for the Union. Willich was born in 
Braunsberg in Prussia, and as a young man had served as an 
officer in the Prussia army. Although he participated in the 
revolutionary movements of 1848, there was a tradition that 
he was himself a scion of the royal family of Prussia; that 
the blood of the Hohenzollern flowed in his veins and revealed 
itself in his features, which showed a striking resemblance 
to the Hohenzollern physiognomy. His military bearing and 
skill as a leader and organizer lent credit to the tradition. 

Willich organized the Ninth Ohio regiment. It was com- 
posed entirely of Germans. It was recruited in Cincinnati, 
though many Germans from Columbus and other places en- 
listed m it. All the officers, except the colonel, at first, were 
Germans. The military commands were given in the German 
language. The regiment was organized on the Prussian model, 
adopting the discipline, drill and regulations in vogue in the 
Prussian army at that time. Willich 's business partner, 
McCook, was chosen as colonel. This was done because the 
regiment expected to receive more favors and greater oppor- 
tunities of service with an American colonel, than with a 
German colonel. 

The only other regiment on exactly the same footing as 
tins was the 32d Indiana. 

After the war Willich lived <it St. Marys, a German town 
in northwestern Ohio, and there he died and lies buried. 

These are the eighteen men of German birth who rose to 
the rank of generals in the Union Army. Thev rose by hard 

23 



and patient service, and sometimes by brilliant achievements, 
in the face of much opposition and prejudice, for there was 
much nativistic prejudice against foreigners in the land, espe- 
cially against the Dutchmen. 

They served from a sense of duty, without hope or expec- 
tation of reward. They received little appreciation and often 
met with rank ingratitude. If they rendered notable service 
to their adopted country or gained a victory, it was taken 
as a matter of course, or ascribed to a fortunate accident. If 
their best efforts met with failure and defeat, they were not 
only subjected to harsh, severe and unjust criticism, but the 
yellow press of the country heaped ridicule and contumely 
upon them, and fairly gloated over the defeat of the "Dutch- 
men," as if it were not at the same time a defeat of the com- 
mon cause. 

But these great-hearted men were not fighting for praise 
or reward or the applause of their fellowmen, but for the ap- 
proval of their conscience, and for a great cause, a principle, 
an ideal. So they let others do the talking and the reviling 
and just kept on fighting to save the Union. 

Three out of the eighteen died on the field of battle. 

To these must be added a great number of officers of Ger- 
man birth, who were of lesser rank, but Avho nevertheless 
rendered brilliant and important services to the Union cause. 

There was J. C. Raith, colonel of the 43d Illinois regiment, 
who fell at the battle of Shiloh. He succeeded Engelman in 
the command of this regiment, which had been organized by 
Gustave Koerner, the German lieutenant-governor of Illinois, 
another ardent and influential supporter of the Union cause. 

Franz Hassendeubcl is another of these. He had already 
served through the Mexican War and had gone back to Ger- 
many, but when the Civil War broke out, he returned to the 
United States and became lieutenant-colonel of Sigel's Third 
German Missouri regiment. He constructed the plans for the 
defense of St. Louis, was mortally wounded during the siege 
of Vicksbnrg, and died July 16, 1863. 

There was Col. Buschbeck, of the 27th Pennsylvania regi- 
ment, who stood like a stone wall at Chancellorville, when 
almost everyone else was taking to flight. Nor must we forget 
Von Schrader. colonel of the 74th Ohio regiment; Knobelsdorff 
and Kiit'ner, of Illinois regiments; Von Gilsa and Von Amsberg, 
eaeli commanding a New York regiment, and many others who 
mighl be mentioned. 

We must remember that all these men were born in Ger- 
many. Bui when Ave speak of the German element we mean 
all those who have German blood in their veins, to whatever 
stratum of German immigration they may belong. 

24 



It would be impossible, within the limits of this paper, 
to give even so much as the names of those officers of the 
Union Army who were of German parentage or ancestry. 

The first officer of the regular army killed in the war was 
Lieutenant John T. Greble, of the Second Artillery. He was 
a graduate of West Point, German by descent, born in Phila- 
delphia. He was killed in action at Big Bethel, Va., in June, 
1861, another of the numerous German heroes who willingly 
laid their lives upon the altar of their country. He sacrified 
liis life for the safety of a company of soldiers imperilled by 
an overwhelming force. 

General George A. Custer, a fearless and dashing cavalry 
leader, an even more popular figure than General Kautz, was 
also German by descent. The original form of his name was 
K uster. This, of course, is not a mere guess, but the undoubted 
historic truth. 

Among the many West Point graduates of German descent 
who served with distinction in the Civil War, Generals Heint- 
zelmann and Rosecrans deserve to be mentioned as the most 
distinguished. 

Numerous regiments composed of Germans and com- 
manded by Germans, were organized all over the country to 
serve in the war. The famous Eleventh Army Corps, com- 
manded by Schurz and Schimmelpfennig, was composed largely 
of Germans. The Second Army Corps, which bore the brunt 
of Pickett's charge at the battle of Gettysburg, was composed 
very largely of Germans by descent, as can easily be seen by 
studying the composition of the regiments constituting that 
corps. 

The historian of the Civil War, J. F. Rhodes, exclaims 
after his description of the battle of Gettysburg and of Pick- 
ett's famous charge: "Decry war as we may and ought. 
' breathes there a man with soul so dead, ' who would not thrill 
with emotion for his countrymen, the men who made that 
charge and the men who met it." 

The German-Americans can claim many of the men who 
met that tremendous onslaught and successfully withstood it, 
as belonging to them by ties of race. and blood, as we have 
just seen in speaking of the Second Army Corps. 

Of the men who made that daring, dashing, death-defying 
charge, two of their ablest officers, General Armistead and 
General Kemper, were German in name and blood. 

Let me group together a few interesting facts in closing. 
It was the Germans who saved the great state of Missouri for 
the Union. The first troops that came from the North for 
the protection of Washington were German troops from New 
York. The first regular army officer to be killed in the war 

25 



was a German. A German was the first Union officer to enter 
the captured city of Charleston, the real birthplace of seces- 
sion. The first Union army officer to enter Kichmond, the 
abandoned Confederate capital, was also a German. As Wash- 
ington's bodyguard during the Revolutionary War was com- 
posed of Germans, so Lincoln's guard of honor at his inaugu- 
ration was composed of Germans who were members of the 
8th Battalion D. C. German Volunteers. A German general, 
Peter Joseph Osterhaus, then serving as chief of staff to Gen- 
eral Canby, negotiated the capitulation of the last Confederate 
Army under Kirby Smith, in 1865. And at the end of the 
war, Mrs. Jefferson Davis declared that the North would never 
have won if it had not been for the Germans. 

These facts may not be specially significant. They may 
be simply interesting and curious coincidents. But to me 
they seem to symbolize the fact, that whenever Columbia has 
been in distress, whenever our country has been in danger or 
in need of help, the German-American has always been ready 
to answer to the call He has always been right there on the 
spot, willing to do whatever the situation might require; to 
do or to die ; to spend his strength, his treasure or his blood, 
without stint, for his country. He has never been surpassed 
by any in loyalty to his country or in real patriotism. 

An interesting phenomenon in connection with our gen- 
eral subject is the attitude of Germany towards America dur- 
ing the Civil War. German sympathy was everywhere whole- 
heartedly on the Northern side. Sentiment, based on the ab- 
horrence of slavery, was no doubt of moment in deciding Ger- 
many's position. 

On his visit to Europe at the time, Andrew D. White 
found friends among all classes of Germans : ' ' Germans every- 
where recognized the real question at issue in the American 
struggle. Everywhere on German soil was a deep detestation 
of human bondage. Frankfort-on-the-Main became a most 
beneficial centre of financial influence and from first to last 
Germany stood firmly by us." 

We are reminded by these words of the assistance which 
August Dohrman gave to the Colonies in the Revolutionary 
War. 

It was not so everywhere in European countries. The 
same distinguished author, in speaking of England, says: "In 
that time of our direst need, when among the leaders in Eng- 
land, D 'Israeli was indifferent, Palmerston jaunty, Earl Rus- 
sell only too happy to let out the Confederate cruisers to anni- 
hilate our commerce, and when Gladstone was satisfied that 
Jefferson Davis had made a nation, there was one who recog- 
nized the wickedness of siding with the slave power, and that 

26 



man a German, the Prince Consort Albert of Saxe-Coburg- 
Gotha." 

Germany gave not only her sympathy but her gold in 
defense of the Union, and the purchase of United States bonds 
in German financial centres contributed very materially to- 
wards sustaining the Union' in the long struggle which the 
government was forced to wage against the powerful Southern 
Confederacy. At the same time W. E. Gladstone in England 
was boasting of his purchase of Confederate bonds. 

Since England desired the success of the Confederacy and 
gave it material aid, may it not be said, in view of all the 
facts, that the preservation of the Union was the second great 
triumph of the German element over British influence in 
America ? 

CONCLUSION. 

According to a conservative estimate there are now 
about twenty million people in the United States who have Ger- 
man blood in their veins — enough to make a mighty nation, 
greater by far than Servia or Belgium, for instance, especially 
when Ave take not only the numbers, but the intelligence, in- 
dustry and vigor of the people of this racial stock into consid- 
eration. 

The presence of the German element in America is not a 
recent thing, but goes back to the very beginnings of our his- 
tory. Americans of German descent may claim to have their 
Pilgrim Fathers as well as those of Anglo-Saxon ancestry. 
And these German Pilgrim Fathers came to these shores, in 
1683, for exactly the same reasons, high and ideal motives, as 
those English Pilgrims who came in 1620. 

Germantown, Pa,, now an integral part of the city of Phila- 
delphia, is the German Plymouth. The good ship Concord 
was the German Mayflower. There would be just as good 
reason for organizing a Society of Concord Descendants, as 
there is for organizing a Society of Mayflower Descendents. 
Franz Daniel Pastorius may be called the German Elder 
Brewster. October 6 is the German Forefathers' Day. And 
though these German Pilgrims did not draw up any instrument 
like the Mayflower compact on board the Concord, their de- 
scendants might well be proud of the fact that these "German 
Quakers" of Pennsylvania made the first public protest against 
Negro slavery in America, and this protest proved prophetic 
of the attitude to be taken by the Germans in America on that 
same question later on. 

Germans have fought in every Avar in Avhich Americans 
have ever engaged, from the French and Indian Wars down 

27 



to the present day and their part in the two great crises of 
1776 and 1861 has been especially important, as we have just 
seen. They have also made great and important contributions 
to the industrial development, as well as to the intellectual, 
artistic and religious life of America. 

Among these twenty millions, their are an untold number, 
who have fully as much right as any of Anglo-Saxon descent, 
to think and sing of America as "the land where our fathers 
died,'' or to sing in the words of Frederick Lucian Hosmer: 
"0 Beautiful, Our Country, round thee in love we draw. For 
thee our fathers suffered; for thee they toiled and prayed: 
upon thy holy altars their willing lives they laid." 

It follows therefore : 

1. That this great nation can in no sense be called an 
Anglo-Saxon nation. Whenever we think or talk or act as if 
it were, we do an injustice to the great German element in 
America, and to people of other racial stocks, such as th-3 
French, the Duteh, the Irish, the Scandinavians, which have 
entered into the composition of the nation. Hosmer hits it 
exactly right here again when he sings in the hymn already 
quoted: ■'Thine is no common birthright, grand memories on 
thee shine, the blood of pilgrim nations commingled flows in 
thine." 

2. It follows that England can no longer, in any true 
sense of the word, be called or considered our mother-country. 
England certainly is no mother to the twenty million Americans 
of German descent. The mother-country of America is not 
England, but Europe. 

3. It follows that anything like an alliance of America 
with England, as against Germany, would be strongly resented. 
and of right ought to he resented, by twenty million Americans 
of German descent. 



28 



NOTE. 

At the first inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, one bat- 
talion under Col. Tait guarded the position where the presi- 
dent took the oath of office and made his inaugural address. 
District of Columbia Volunteers, under Captain S. X. Owens, 
guarded the carriage in which the two presidents rode. The 
8th Battalion, District of Columbia German Volunteers, Major 
A. Balbaeh, captain Ernest Loeffler; and Company A, German 
Turner Kifles, Captain Kreyanowski (?), marched beside and 
behind the carriage as guards of honor. 

These facts, obtained from a surviving member of the 8th 
Battalion D. C. German Volunteers, form the basis for the 
statement contained in the foregoing essay, that German troops 
formed the escort and guard of honor at Lincoln's first inaugu- 
ration. 

The 8th Battalion D. C. German Volunteers was mustered 
into active service on April 11, 1861. It performed guard duty, 
guarding public buildings, property, and bridges and roads 
leading into Washington. It formed the advance guard in the 
first movement into Virginia, when Alexandria was captured, 
and was afterwards stationed at Great Palls on the Potomac 
to protect the water supply of the city of Washington. 



29 



L1BRA RY OF CONGRESS 




011 899 529 6 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 899 529 6 



